I live in Meadville, which is about 35 miles south of Erie. A lot of the people I work with are from Erie and they tell me there are a number of beaches, both old and new along the lake. Have you tried looking at Erie's website for info on public beaches? Also I was talking to one of my friends yesterday and he said he'd been on a site that had old postcards from Erie that showed older beaches etc. Unfortunately he couldn't remember the website but he did tell me about some places and offered to show me where they are sometime in the spring.

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